


First Touch

by ohmytheon



Series: soulmates tattoo drabbles [5]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fic, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Young Royai, soulmate tattoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 19:47:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5838610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmytheon/pseuds/ohmytheon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the first touch that matters and sometimes it's all Roy can think about when Riza's fingers are so close to the first words she ever spoke to him mark him as her soulmate - but then, she doesn't have hers yet, so wait he must.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Touch

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly forgot that I'd written this ages ago until I randomly stumbled across it. I love this AU almost as much as I love my daemon AU. Okay, so maybe I just love AUs period.

There are times when Riza’s hands are so close to his soulmate tattoo that he feels like every brushstroke is on fire, searing each word into his skin yet again. The heat flares up whenever she’s unknowingly close by the mark, and he imagines that it will only be put out when she finally touches it.

The idea that she one day will – that her fingers will delicately trace every letter – is almost enough to make Roy shiver. She’s very careful with giving him his space, but over the course of his apprenticeship and their time together, she has grown more comfortable with him as well. The need to be appropriate with him has been too ingrained in her mind for her to be physical with him, but he has found that he doesn’t need that with her. Sometimes a shy smile and a gentle touch on his wrist are enough to sooth him better than a hug ever would.

For the most part, he is able to put the words marking him as hers out of his mind. After all, he can’t afford to be distracted when it comes to his studying. It was difficult at first, being burdened with the knowledge that the quiet girl in the room next to him that did her best to avoid him was his soulmate. Or rather, she would be his soulmate. It made it difficult for him to form any sort of attachment with her. He fell into fits of nervousness and sometimes just wanted to blurt out everything to her.

But then she didn’t have a soulmate tattoo yet, and he didn’t think it would be appropriate or good of him to tell her in advance. That’s what the marks were for. It wasn’t his place to tell her something that the universe didn’t see fit for her to know yet. He found himself drawn to her almost immediately, but he noticed that it took her years to open up to him completely. Maybe she needed time to fall whereas he needed knowledge.

So he kept his mouth shut about the words and let them bleed out of his mind. Luckily for him, Riza rarely ever wants to talk about soulmate tattoos. Her father has a soulmate tattoo, but it is dull and lifeless, blotted with what looked suspiciously like old burn marks. Because of that though, Riza almost never brings them up. It’s like she’s afraid. Whether that fear comes from the idea of disgruntling a man that ignores her or the idea of having one herself, Roy doesn’t know. He’s afraid of her bringing them up, if only because he doesn’t want her to ask him. He can’t just tell her, but he’s never lied to her either.

On an otherwise uneventful day, Roy is forced to face the fact that he is utterly at the whim of Riza Hawkeye and the words scrawled on his left side.

The walk from her school back to the house is fairly pleasant. They talk about her lessons for the day. Roy tries not to ramble about alchemy, knowing that it is something she doesn’t care for, but it’s hard when he’s so excited about getting into the next stage. He’s become an alchemist in his own right, though he doesn’t have a specific field yet as his teacher hasn’t given any hints about his research on flame alchemy.

Roy bites his tongue when he hears himself blathering and clears his throat. “Anything interesting happen today?”

“No, well–” Riza frowns a little. He finds it a little disconcerting that he can’t tell if it’s a sad or thoughtful frown. She’s really too good at hiding how she feels. “One of the girls in class got her soulmate tattoo at lunch. She’s the fourth person in two weeks.”

Breathing through his nose, Roy tries not to think about the words on his skin, but it’s hard not to when he feels like they’re prickling again. They always do whenever she talks about soulmate marks, like the tattoo is itching to be touched and seen, to be acknowledged. He wonders if that feeling will go away when she finally does see them or if it’ll only burn more with the desire to be known and returned.

“A lot of people get their soulmate tattoos around this age,” Roy points out, which he isn’t wrong about. She’s sixteen. Most soulmate marks begin to appear when people hit puberty, but many crop up between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. Roy did his research to know that it was somewhat unusual to get a soulmate mark at a young age, like he did at ten, and even more uncommon to get one in adulthood. It did happen though.

The fact that Riza could get her soulmate tattoo mark any day now both exhilarates Roy and terrifies the hell out of him. It’ll be both a shock and awkward realization that he’s been harboring a secret like this from her all these years. He knew one of the most intimate things about her future when he was just a stranger to her and he kept it a secret. He rather hopes that she won’t be mad at him for that.

Riza tilts her head and bites her lip. “Do you have one?”

Of course, Roy’s feet choose that exact moment to stumble over a tree root and his body pitches forward. He would’ve fallen painfully on the ground if it isn’t for Riza leaping forward to grab hold of him, one hand holding his arm and the other pressed against his side, pushing him back towards her.

All the air is sucked out of Roy’s chest and it’s not because he nearly fell face first into the dirt. Riza’s hand is lying directly over his soulmate tattoo mark, only the thin material of his shirt separating her from him. He can’t be imagining the words burning, like he’s being marked all over again, and he hears her voice in the back of his head, flat and timid and oh so young.

_If you could please follow me to your room, Mister Mustang._

Roy can’t breathe. She is so close to touching the first words she ever spoke to him, and he can’t even begin to understand how he can think of anything else when she is close enough to touch him. He knows in his heart that the burning won’t ever truly go away until she traces each letter with a finger, but for now, the ghost of her touch is enough to curl his toes and fingers and stand all of his hair on end.

“Are you alright?” Riza asks, her voice sounding distant as blood thumps loudly in his ears.

When he looks over at her, he catches the worried expression on her face, but confusion swirls in her eyes. Roy stands up straight, rigid and tight like a bow string, and forces a smile onto his face. “Yeah, I’m fine, just tripped.”

“You look…distressed.”

“I almost did a face plant,” Roy responds quickly. “That’s embarrassing.”

Riza shakes her head. “No it’s not. There’s no one around to see your clumsy mishap.”

Roy stares at her. “You’re here.”

“I don’t count, silly.”

“You do to me.”

Silence falls over them as they look at one another. Blush tinges her cheeks, but she doesn’t look away in embarrassment. Roy doesn’t turn his eyes away either, despite the boldness of his statement that would’ve had him stammering in explanation otherwise. It occurs to him that she hasn’t let go of him yet, her hand still pressed against his soulmate mark. He doesn’t want her to pull away, but he’s afraid that if she doesn’t soon, he’s going to say something else that he might regret.

Turning his body away so that her hands slip away from him, Roy looks at the house in the distance. “We should get back soon. I don’t fancy the idea of getting punished for being late for my lesson.”

“Of course,” Riza replies, nodding her head.

They continue their walk back home in comfortable silence, but Roy can’t get the words out of his mind and the need for that first touch from her. It is such a simple thing, something he has been able to ignore for so long. Perhaps it’s for that reason that the desire is bubbling up so strongly in him now. He wonders how long it will be – how long he will have to wait – and he doesn’t know if he can wait much longer.

When he glances at Riza out of the corner of his eyes though, humming along to herself and smiling faintly, Roy takes a breath. He can wait years if it means waiting for her.


End file.
